Alcohol

​An OHSU study of alcohol's effect on rhesus macaques has shown nasty effects on developing brains. Each gram of alcohol per kilogram of body weight (the human equivalent of four beers a day) reduced the rate of brain growth by nearly 47 percent per year.

​It was six years ago that we first heard about Makr Shakr, a robotic bar that can reportedly mix one Googol (the digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes) drink combinations. Now, its designers are planning on installing the tech in an autonomous vehicle that users can hail whenever they want a bevvy.

With Christmas just behind us and New Year’s around the corner, many are familiar with the effects of alcohol, but how it works in the brain is still shrouded in mystery. Now scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have discovered a new step in the intoxication process – by getting flies drunk.

Every now and then, an invention comes along that makes us wonder how we ever lived without it – but those are in the minority. New Atlas rounds up the weirdest and wackiest inventions that left us scratching our heads this year.

Keurig is best known for popularizing the coffee pod machine, but realizing it’s always five o’clock somewhere, the company is now taking the concept out on the town with the Drinkworks Home Bar, which cooks up cocktails (or beer and cider, for some reason) from the same kind of premixed pods.

​Imagine if it's a chilly day and you're heading out to a gathering, but the only beverages you have on hand are room-temperature. Well, that's where Blitzen would come in. It lets you chill bottled drinks on top of your car, while you drive.

Beer is generally thought to be about 7,000 years old, but now archaeologists have found clues that could date beer-making to almost twice that age, meaning it predates agriculture and represents the oldest record of man-made alcohol.

A robust study has uncovered a molecular mechanism in the brain that is believed central to the development of alcohol addiction. The research potentially explains why some people are more prone to alcoholism than others and may even lead to a new drug therapy than could treat alcohol dependance.

Scientists exploring the potential of ​transcranial magnetic stimulation to tackle drug addiction have found that it can dampen brain activity in response to common triggers, with implications for both the development of new substance abuse treatments and our understanding of neuroscience.

​There may be a new method of monitoring the alcohol intake of people in substance abuse treatment programs. Led by Prof. Drew Hall, scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed an alcohol-sensing chip that can be implanted in the body.

A major study examining ways of stemming the rising rates of non-communicable diseases worldwide has concluded that taxes on unhealthy products, such as sugary soft drinks and tobacco, would produce major health gains for the poor.

​A study has found that a dose of human stem cells administered to rats bred to be high alcohol drinkers significantly reduced their voluntary alcohol intake. The research bolsters the growing hypothesis that stem cell treatments may be effective therapies to battle a variety of addiction disorders.